Archive for the Yuri Game Category


Our Home, My Keeper

May 20th, 2026

Title image of Our Home, My Keeper from Studio Élan and Ebi-hime. A woman with medium brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, reaches up towards a diminutive female figure on a shelf, with long dark brown hair pulled into an Alice band, old-fashioned white long-sleeved blouse and long dark brown skirt.by Patricia Baxter, Guest Reviewer

Our Home, My Keeper is a new linear visual novel co-developed by ebi-hime and Studio Élan, two of the biggest developers in the niche of English language yuri games, and the first collaboration between the two developers.

The game follows Paige Crowley, a writer who recently finished a successful children’s book trilogy and is hoping to work on her next book. The game begins after she’s moved from London to the British countryside for a change of pace and, hopefully, some new inspiration as she currently has a severe case of writer’s block. As a housewarming gift, her best friend gives her a handmade porcelain doll to keep her company. As time progresses, Paige discovers that her abode has many secrets hiding in its shadows, and that her doll will soon house a new friend and confidant: Faye, the brownie.

In many respects this game is a delightful union between the two teams, combining ebi-hime’s character-focused drama and prose to create a charming world filled with likable characters, and Studio Élan’s high production values in terms of visual and audio design, giving it an extremely impressive presentation. ebi-hime was clearly pulling out all the stops here, as she crafted some downright delightful turns of phrase throughout the game, and Paige’s character arc of gradually getting back into her groove as a writer feels both realistic and thematically well-earned. Meanwhile, Studio Élan shows that they have also put in some of their best work; the game’s text is implemented in a creative fashion, as is their standard, and small, welcome touches like the skyline gradually changing to indicate the passage of time.

Overall, this should be a surefire success, and for three quarters of the game it is, but sadly the game stumbles when it reaches the final act. The underlying conflict comes to a head in this part of the game, and it results in some elements that feel like abuse apologia, with magic being blamed for a spouse’s behaviour towards their partner and children. On the one hand, I’m glad that none of the parties involved in the incident got out of this scot-free, as they all paid for their mistakes in one way or another, but on the other hand I feel like this was a devastating event to put into what was an otherwise fluff-focused romance. To be fair, this plot element does not come out of nowhere, as the undercurrent of tragedy was present since Paige’s first night in her new house, but it still feels like everything in the present day was resolved too quickly and too neatly. Perhaps a more satisfying conclusion could have been achieved with a bit more time dedicated to this plot thread, but that may have resulted in a weaker narrative flow, which was otherwise stellar up to the final act.

Overall, Our Home, My Keeper excels for the majority of its play time. Paige’s personal journey feels believable, the characters are charming, and before the end of the game you can really feel like her house is becoming a home. It’s just a shame that the final act soured what is, fundamentally, a very great visual novel. I sincerely hope that ebi-hime and Studio Élan collaborate on another game in the future, because they truly made something special here, and hopefully they can work together to make something even better next time.

Our Home, My Keeper is available on Steam and itch.io for all PC operating systems for around $20 CAD or $15 USD.

Ratings: 

Art: 7.5 for character sprites and CGs, 10 for the game’s UI
Story: 8.5
Characters: 7.5
Service: 0
Yuri: 6

Overall: 8





Yuri Visual Novel Studio Élan: Creating Queer Arts for Years to Come

May 6th, 2026
Title image of “Our Home, My Keeper”, Studio Élan’s latest yuri visual novel, released on April 30, 2026. Image by Studio Élan. Two women stand in a library or study, one close to us with brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, another diminutive figure on a shelf a white blouse and long black skirt, with long dark hair pulled back by an Alice band

Title image of “Our Home, My Keeper”, Studio Élan’s latest yuri visual novel, released on April 30, 2026. Image by Studio Élan.

by Lena Tama, Guest Reviewer

In 2019, Erica had the pleasure of interviewing Studio Élan, one of the pioneers of western yuri fantasy visual novel (VN) developers in the industry, for Okazu. Seven years have passed since then and the studio continues to publish VNs by queer people for queer people, despite the ever-increasingly hostile internet environment for both the audiences and the studio.

Before the creation of Studio Élan, a studio called Alienworks released Highway Blossoms in 2016, which was well-received among fans and players worldwide. From there, a number of people from Alienworks, including Josh Kaplan, founded Studio Élan and marked its debut with the release of Heart of the Woods, a dark fantasy yuri VN. 

Since then, many more VNs have come out under Studio Élan’s name, which cover multiple subgenres and explore a wide range of gender & sexual identities. In addition, Highway Blossoms also became an official part of their catalog in 2019 and received a major story expansion titled Next Exit in 2020.

In 2026, Studio Élan is publishing three new and distinct VNs:

  1. Our Home, My Keeper. Released on April 30 in collaboration with another VN developer ebi-hime, it tells the story of a struggling novelist who purchases a new home in the English countryside, only to find it already inhabited by a fairy, who occupies a doll for her body.
  2. My VTuber Rival is Actually Cute? Planned for release in summer, this is a shorter and more experimental VN about a VTuber protagonist whose character design is customizable by players.
  3. Summer at the Edge of the Universe, a solarpunk adventure story planned for release by the end of 2026. A playable demo is available to download for free.

 

The importance of women and LGBTQI+ people in VN development

The diverse subgenres and exploration of gender & sexual diversity among their VNs is supported by the involvement of women and LGBTQI+ people, both within Studio Élan as well as their partner collaborators. Josh Kaplan stated that the majority of people working on their projects fall into those categories and have some creative influences and opinions over those games.

“It is always rewarding when someone mentions how seen they felt or represented by one of our games or characters,” said Josh

As such, a number of their VNs also feature LGBTQI+ characters and plot points, whether canonically in the games or through supplementary materials, which resonate with a lot of queer people, including the community on Discord that the studio has built over the years. Some of those characters include Tara from Heart of the Woods who identifies herself as a trans woman in the game, Olive from Twofold who is canonically non-binary, and Aspen from Please Be Happy who is asexual based on supplementary materials.

Among those people involved with Studio Élan is adirosa, who initially joined the studio in late 2017 as a graphic designer. Since then, she became more involved in the majority of the studio’s works in multiple roles, with Please Be Happy being her first major project as its Director.

Reflecting on her works so far, adirosa said, “I have always felt valued and heard at Studio Élan.”

 

Working against the increasingly hostile internet environment

Despite the progress over the years, not everything is sugar and rainbows. In the current year of 2026, the internet has grown ever-increasingly hostile due to global politics, increasing misogyny and hatred towards LGBTQI+ people, particularly lesbians and trans/non-binary/other gender identities, and rampant usage of generative AI (genAI) technology.

As a result, Studio Élan has become exceptionally prone to receiving hate speech and review-bombing, whether on their social media or game store platforms such as Steam or GOG. In addition, genAI technology puts them at risk of getting their arts, such as the artwork and voices, stolen and abused.

Furthermore, the people working on the VNs are also facing an increasing risk of experiencing harassment both on the internet and in real life.

“I’m seeing my friends torn down in modern society and their works disrespected and undervalued. It’s incredibly difficult and heartbreaking, and there’s really no easy answer to this,” adirosa commented.

Key visual for “Please Be Happy”, from Studio Élan. Three woman at a hightop table. One woman with medium brown skin, black collar length hair in white , wearing black boots to the knee, a young-looking girl with animal ears and brown hair. Standing next to them a pale-skinned woman with blonde hair, wearing glasses and a teal apron (over her?) dress.

“Please Be Happy”, a yuri visual novel by Studio Élan. Characters from left to right: Aspen (left), Miho (middle), and Juliet (right). Image by Studio Élan.

In spite of those setbacks, Studio Élan remains optimistic. For starters, they are committed to upholding their integrity without utilizing genAI technology. Josh explained, “We are wholly against genAI for art, writing, voice-acting, or anything else. Our work process hasn’t changed, in that regard.”

“I’m confident that people will continue to seek out and value human-made art and stories, and that our games will continue to find an audience with whom they resonate,” he continued.

Even further, in the face of hatred and bigotry towards LGBTQI+ people in current times, Studio Élan also remains committed to creating more stories and games by queer people for queer people.

“Right now, it’s more important than ever for both creators and fans to support LGBTQI+ art, not just for us but also for all of the many creators who continue making and sharing things despite the pressure to stop. Even if we have to sell them off handmailed USB drives,” said Josh.

 

Moving forward alongside the community

Studio Élan continues to produce and publish yuri VNs and will continue to do so for many years to come, all while fostering a community which stands tall as a safe space for women and LGBTQI+ people. The people working behind the scenes are also hopeful that they’d be able to create more exciting VNs that resonate with a lot of people.

adirosa stated, “I plan to release more games in the future, and I hope that they will be able to make people a little bit happier and maybe make the world a bit of a better place.”

Meanwhile, Josh is optimistic that the studio will create new and exciting VNs in the future, all thanks to the support of the community.

He said, “We are super grateful for the community and audience that we have, whether they’re newcomers or long-term fans on Discord whose name I see every day from before we even released our first game. I hope that we’ll continue to earn our support.”

“I also consider myself incredibly fortunate to be able to keep making games alongside some of my favorite people and to still have fun doing it. Here’s to many more years of that.”

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This article is written by Lena Tama, a contributor and queer journalist from Indonesia. She loves all things yuri and will bake cookies & sweets for you!





Toxic Yuri Demo

April 29th, 2026

Image of the main menu of the game Toxic Yuri. On the left is the Toxic Yuri icon. A purple squishy heart with the words Toxic Yuri surrounding a small cartoon skull. On the right is the main heroine of Toxic Yuri Doku-chan. A girl made of purple slime about three heads high in proportion wearing a burlap dress.by Ashley P, Staff Writer

I’m from the UK so I love a good pun title. So when I saw the demo for the new yuri visual novel Toxic Yuri by Yuri Kissaten I felt nationally bound to write about it.

Ol-san is, an… OL, working in a Kyoto based company. She’s in a bit of a slump, even office mixers feel like a chore. It is on the way back from one of these mixers that Ol-san runs into Doku-chan, a tiny woman made of hazardous slime that Ol-san decides to take back to her home.

What follows is the next first chapter of the full game ‘Toxic Yuri’ where Ol-san has to deal with the usual fantasy of saving a cute monster/monster adjacent woman but with the usual problems you might think of when you suddenly have to look after a tiny person made entirely of purple slime who has to eat soap to not smell like a trash fire.

Most of the choices in this early part of ‘Toxic Yuri’ determine how kind Ol-san is to Doku-chan. She can be cruel and controlling or kind and understanding. The demo gives you three rankings toxic, tepid, and tonic depending on your choices but there will be more than three endings in the final game. That said this means that right now the demo is mostly setting up flags for a later period that we don’t get to in the demo.

It is a sweet start to a story (depending on player choices) but it is difficult to root very hard for Ol-san and Doku-chan to get together. Doku-chan is naive to the point of it being farcical so no matter how Ol-san is portrayed it appears a bit like the fantasy of having a girlfriend falling into your lap and doing whatever you want while being hapless and adorable. I don’t want to make too many assumptions of the average Okazu reader but I don’t think that is really the kind of relationship we want to read about.

However I think this story is winding up to drop another, possibly half dissolved, shoe on the reader later. As I said earlier the story seems to be setting flags for a greater turn in the full game. Often those denouement in video games where all your choices come to a point can be very satisfying.

Looking at ‘Toxic Yuri’ as a demo; there was not much to make me want to read beyond the first chapter: except for Ol-san’s co-worker Fujino-san. Fujino is clearly the main character in a shakaijin yuri story happening off page and she actually is able to clash believably and entertainingly with Ol-san. Hopefully the full game will have much more Fujino-san.

Ratings:

Overall – 7





Black Lily’s Tale

April 8th, 2026

The title screen of Black Lily's Tale. Two girls in the same blue Japanese sailor-style uniform, with red ties, A girl with collar-length blonde hair is behind a girl with pale long hair. They hold hands over the pale-haired girl's head and to the side.

by Ashley Payne, Okazu Staff Writer.

Stop me if you have heard this before: Hana Sasamori has been friends with Itsuki Oomiya all through high school. A few days before graduation they discover they like each other… NOT the end, as it turns out. Despite a slow start Black Lily’s Tale (available on Steam and Crunchyroll) actually takes some time to address modern issues queer youth have to face, albeit with a vague science-fiction blanket over it.

Black Lily’s Tale has perhaps one of the more roundabout introductions for a game of it’s type. We are introduced to everything with a whole lot of point and click examinations and learning how choices work. In Black Lily’s Tale you have to type in your own choices at the right time rather than wait for the game to give you several possible answers to change the story.

A screenshot of the game Black Lily's Tale with the three central characters Hana Sasamori, Itsuki Oomiya & Aoi Nishiki in contemporary coats over their school uniforms. Hana's line is "He said it was because we made a bulk purchase..."

That said after this brief introduction on how the game will be played, we then have a nearly two hour introduction to the characters and setting where none of that will be relevant. While the actual core characters of Hana, Itsuki and their mutual friend Aoi are all fun people to be with, most of the introduction is bogged down with a lot of sci-fi baggage to what otherwise is a very contemporary story. It doesn’t take long for the Doylist reason for this to become apparent it never stops being odd that of all the names, ‘biophone’ was the name the writers settled on for their smartphone analogues.

A screen shot of Black Lily's Tale with several paragraphs describing Hana Sasamori having to deal with compulsory heterosexuality at her school. Hana wears a grey knit cable sweater jacket over her school uniform and has long, pale hair with a flower on a braid on the left side of her face.

 

A screenshot of the game Black Lily's Tale with the three central characters Hana Sasamori, Itsuki Oomiya & Aoi Nishiki in dark blue Japanese sailor-syle school unforms with a red tie.. Hana's line is: "Ahaha! No one loves sharks quite like Aoi, huh?"

 

That said, the real reason for all this exhausting world building is so that they can take what would have otherwise been a ‘story A’ style game and actually address issues like compulsory heterosexuality and conversion therapy. It’s almost elegant until you realise that everything worth talking about in Black Lily’s Tale is happening today, right now. Children are being pressured by compulsory heterosexuality right now. Children are being forced through conversion therapy right now. 

A screenshot of the game Black Lily's Tale with Hana Sasamori, who had long pale hair, with a flower on the brain on the left side of her face, confronting Natsu Kakizaki, who has short, boyish cut red hair. Hana is saying: "It doesn't matter if we're both girls! There's nothing wrong with loving someone!"

 

A chart of the language of flowers. Focusing on flowers beginning with 'A'. Hana is thinking: It'd be nice if the language of flowers gave us some kind of clue towards the answer Ai's looking for...

While Black Lily’s Tale has it’s heart in the right place I can’t help but feel all this was just so they could turn escaping from one of the more traumatic things queer youth suffer from into a game.

A screenshot of the game Black Lily's Tale with Hana Sasamori coming to realise that her feelings have been pathologised. Hana is thinking: Understanding of heterosexuality? Stunted?

Once everything became clear it was nice to see a yuri story in this high school environment that actively takes deliberate effort to explore what current day youth are experiencing. That said it is precisely because this game deals with something that so many queer people have experienced first hand I’d recommend Black Lily’s Tale with a content warning of what it deals with so people can be prepared.

Ratings:

Art – 3 (I don’t like live 2D sorry, everyone is always bouncing.)
Story – 8
Characters  – 7
Service – 2
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7





Yuri Visual Novel Demo Mini-reviews: Irene, The Window and Lock & Key

October 31st, 2025

The Fall In Love Fest on Steam concluded last month, but our team has two more demos for you to enjoy, by our crack Yuri VN team of Eleanor and Ashley.

Eleanor

Title card for Irene, The Window, Next to a blue wall, blonde woman looks at us as she lays on a pillow.Irene, The Window is an interesting take on reconnecting with an old college friend. Irene suddenly contacts you after many years of absence and you become close again while she’s in the hospital for some unknown condition. The main thing I liked about this game is that in between each “day” the game encourages you to go offline for a couple of minutes and do something like make a cup of tea. There’s also plenty of dialogue options to choose from so there’s many ways the story can go. 

Given that this is only a demo, the scenery doesn’t change much but the art is perfectly pleasant to look at, the background music is fine and there’s enough of a mystery around Irene that I want to know what her full story is. The dialogue is good apart from a couple of small typos. 

 

Ashley

Title card for Lock & Key. A caped woman with short hair holds hands with a girl in a green dress, surrounded by other characters from the game.The demo for Lock & Key: A Magical Girl Mystery has been available since 2022 but on the thirtieth of September 2025 the full game is now out and part of the Fall in Love Fest so now is a great time to see if this magical girl mystery is interesting to you.

Lock & Key is narrated by Sherri Cohen, a former magical girl now a private eye. In this world magical girls lose their powers when they turn thirty and Sherri only has one more year to take advantage of her clairvoyance to help people in need as a detective.

Sherri is not helping people alone though she has her amazing wife Kealey helping her. Kealey has adapted to post magical girl life even better than Sherri. Kealey uses her shapeshifting ability to steal the valuables of the rich and terrible. As Sherri is the narrator for the entire demo it is fantastic to be in her head while Kealey is around and be treated to a constant barrage of a woman’s admiration for her wife. It’s easily what I want to read more of in the full game.

But that’s not everything that Sherri and Kealey are going to be dealing with. In a demo that takes under an hour we have about four separate plot threads dropped on us.

Sherri and Kealey are trying to make the best of their last year with magical abilities both for themselves and the world at large. For Sherri this includes hunting down a serial killer terrorising Chicago.

But our married duo also have their former teammate Nina arriving for a month looking to catch up and remember a lost mutual teammate.

But that’s not all! Sherri and Kealey stumble on brand new magical girl Ruby “Nightshade” Thompson. Ruby’s powerful but she clearly has a thing or two to learn about teamwork and community. Perhaps the two veteran magical girls can show her the benefit of learning from others?

The Lock & Key demo is an impressive example of an advertisement. A swift introduction to a novel that now, three years later, I am interested in reading the continuation of. Married, magical, PI. yuri is an underserved genre.